Monthly Archives: October 2014

Easy Birthday Card with a Scrap of Patterned Paper

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A card inspired by a scrap of paper from the Chalk It Up paper pack.

A card inspired by a scrap of paper from the Chalk It Up paper pack.

Often we’d like to make a birthday card, but really don’t have a lot of time. This birthday card went together rather quickly! The whole idea came from a scrap of paper! I knew the recipient liked orange and I saw this scrap of paper on my desk and thought it was close enough to orange. It is from the Chalk It Up Close to My Heart paper pack. I liked it because it already had some other colors and it would make my color choices fast and easy. The color along the left side is the decorative “zip strip” I told you about the other day. It is the extra 1/2 inch on one side of a patterned 12×12″ paper, which is a bonus decorative strip that coordinates with the paper pack.

Since I was in a hurry (and maybe a bit lazy), my plan was to just use this scrap and try to get as much mileage from it as possible. So I cut it into strips and then arranged them across the width of the card, and adhered them.

One thing I like about using clear acrylic stamps is the fact that you can pull them off the backing sheets and arrange them before you ever stamp them. If you don’t like the look you can move them around until you are happy, or entirely swap out the stamps. When you begin to accumulate stamp sets, it’s fun to mix and match. I decided to use the cupcake and candle from the Birthday set from the CTMH Cricut Artiste collection, and the Happy Birthday sentiment is from the Build A Cake set.

D1618 Build a Cake

CTMH – Build a Cake, # D1618

CTMH D1529 Birthday_Artiste

CTMH, Birthday – Cricut Artiste Collection

I stamped the “Happy Birthday” on white card stock, in Lagoon ink to match the color at the left side. This helped pull the Lagoon color across the entire card. The white card stock was matted with at piece of Sorbet card stock to coordinate with the color from the scrap of paper I started with. The cupcake and candle stamp were stamped in `black and were colored with the Touch Twin alcohol markers in Peacock Green, Barely Beige, and Golden Yellow. Then I added some glue to the cupcake to and sprinkled with glitter to make the icing look like it had been dusted with sugar.

Glitter was added for a little sparkle

Glitter was added for a little sparkle!

I was happy with the way it turned out, and extra happy that it didn’t take too long! Isn’t it funny how inspiration comes in many ways? This was simply because I only wanted to use one scrap of paper I found on my desk! What inspiration will you find today? Come over and share it with us on our Facebook Group! Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures! KS       If you are in the US, please feel free to shop in my online Close To My Heart store. Here are handy links for the products in this featured project.

Quote, Unquote – Class with Stephanie Ackerman

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Have you noticed how much of our art has words these days? So many of us are creating one thing or another and adding words, quotes, and phrases to our pieces. Sometimes we make something and feel it isn’t quite complete until we add words to it.

We often see people looking at paintings or other works of art and trying to determine what the artist was feeling while creating the piece, their vision, or what they want us to feel when we see it. The works that we add words to are no different, but it seems to give us at least a hint into the piece. Sometimes the words are the major focus, with artfully drawn letters and added embellishments.

Many times I make something and feel like it’s missing something, until I find the words I want to add. Then it feels just right to me.

If you’d like to learn some great tips on adding words to your work, Mark you calendar for November 3! Stephanie Ackerman from Homegrown Hospitality is going to be the guest on Lain Ehmann’s November scrapinar and will be showing us how she turns ordinary text into inspiring, faith-filled works of “Heart!” I loved spending time with Stephanie at a workshop in Phoenix this summer, and I’m sure you’ll love to watch this free video class! (Here is my Artful Adventure post about our Phoenix experience with Stephanie.)  But don’t forget, you’ll need to go sign up for free, to get the viewing info, and to have a chance to watch the replay if you can’t catch it live!

November 2014 Scrapinar

Click on the image for info

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

KS

Creating a Background Effect with Handwriting

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handwriting background techniqueWelcome to the Make It Monday blog hop. If you’ve come from Gina Zee’s site, you’re in the right place! She always has clever up-cycling/recycling ideas for crafting! I’ll give you info on all the sites in this week’s blog hop at the end of this post so you don’t miss anything you may be interested in!

Have you ever thought about creating your own background paper with your own handwriting? Now before you tune me out, I don’t want to hear any, “My handwriting is awful!” because it doesn’t even matter for the technique I’m going to show you. This can actually be a way to do some disguised journaling. Or you can just use words that relate to a certain theme. You don’t even have to use full sentences. The choice is yours, and there is no right or wrong way to do this.

First you’ll need to decide what you’ll use for your background. This technique could easily be used for scrapbooking, art journaling, mixed media, card making, or whatever else you can think of to use it for. Then you’ll need something to write with that is a water soluble medium. Today I’m just going to use water color pencils. They are readily available and not too expensive, and hopefully you already have some on hand.

I took a couple of water color pencils in colors I wanted to coordinate with the fall theme I had in mind and I just randomly wrote about the fall season. See, I don’t have great handwriting, and I didn’t even try to be neat.
handwriting-background-1

Even though I had already written on card stock, instead of just jumping in, I decided to first try this on water color paper. I did more “journaling” about fall with watercolor pencils and on the top of the page I brushed on water to activate the water color pencils. On the bottom, I simply used a baby wipe, with no additional water. The bottom created the look I was after!

Testing in watercolor paper journal

Testing the method in a water color paper journal. The top was brushed with water, the bottom buffed with a baby wipe.

Since the look I liked didn’t use water, I knew it would work on card stock without treating the card stock in any special way.  I decided to create a scrapbook layout with a photo I had taken, so I grabbed out a sheet of off-white card stock to make the background. This time I added a bit of a third color to the writing, a bit of yellow over some of the brown and the orange. Then I used a baby wipe and buffed in a circular motion. You can blend as much as desired. You don’t need to be able to read any of the words to realize that it is handwriting. If the wipe becomes too dry, grab another one, or dampen it ever so slightly.

Filled page with journaling about the fall season

Filled page with journaling about the fall season.

Now I created my layout. The leaves and tiny “title” were stamped with pigment ink, heat embossed, and the leaves cut out. The stamp set is “Fall Harvest, #C1504” from Close to My Heart. Bronze Shimmer Trim was added for a bit more pizazz. The outer edges were inked and buffed, as well.

The finished layout

The finished layout.

The yellow leaf was raised up a bit with foam squares to add just a bit more dimension.

Foam squares were used to raise the yellow leaf

Foam squares were used to raise the yellow leaf.

Overall, I was pleased with the outcome. I would use the handwriting effect again. I think it would be perfect for art journaling, and I can’t wait to try in on a mixed media piece with a different water soluble medium to write with!

Visit the other Make it Monday sites below and please feel free to shop my Close to My Heart online store if you live in the US.

Make It Monday blog hop participants this week.

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

KS

Halloween Tag – CTMH Halloween Greetings Stamp Set

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As soon as I saw the Halloween Greetings stamp set for Close to My Heart, I knew I had to use it. I had a tag swap to make some tags for, so I decided it was the perfect time to use it.
Kristie Sloan Halloween-Tag-Ride-It

Halloween Greetings Stamp Set

Halloween Greetings Stamp Set

I decided to layer a cream color over a black piece of card stock, rounding the corners, and used black ink to stamp with. I knew I was going to color in the image with the Touch Twin alcohol markers, so I made sure I used an ink that would be suitable. You do NOT want to use StazOn ink when combining with alcohol based markers. StazOn is a solvent based ink, which is why it is suitable to use on so many surfaces. However, alcohol with dissolve the solvent and you can end up ruining your makers!

A zip strip from one of the patterned papers in the Scaredy Cat paper pack was going to be a great addition to the tag. Instead of leaving it as it was, I colored it with an orange Touch Twin marker to coordinate with the color I’d already applied. A zip strip is the extra half inch that is added to on side of the patterned paper in the paper pack. One side has a extra decorative element that will coordinate with the paper pack, and the other side has product information, including the paper and ink colors that coordinate with the pack. I think it is genius to add a little sumpin-sumpin, for us to use on a piece that would normally be tossed!

Broom straws were made by using a couple of small lengths of hemp twine, and knotting it near one end. Separate the fibers and you’ve got a great look for the broom! I used the open tip of scissors to help separate the fibers. Then a dab of Liquid Glass clear lacquer adhesive was used to make sure the knot stayed put, and it was added above and below the knot, flipped over and adhered to the tag.

The stars got a bad of glue and glitter, to help them sparkle. Then a bit of ribbon was secured with a tiny attacher, and I declared the tags to be complete!

Halloween Greetings tag

Shop Close to My Heart Products: kristiesloan.ctmh.com

Cheers to YOUR Artful Adventures!

KS

 

 

Mixed Media Halloween Wall Decor

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make it monday blog hop fall logoWelcome to this week’s Make It Monday blog hop! If you arrived by way of Karen Fitting’s website at Photos Kept Alive, welcome! I don’t want you to miss her post because she always has such great ideas, so I’ll tell you how to get back to it at the end of this post.

Today’s theme is Fall/Halloween for the hop. I have had this idea for a little while, and so I saved it for today. Since so many people want to know how to create the mixed media projects they are seeing, I decided to create something with a limited set of products. I chose the Scaredy Cat paper pack and Scaredy Cat Complements pack from Close to My Heart because I felt it offered such a great collection for what I wanted to create.

Halloween Mixed Media Decor Item

Halloween Mixed Media Decor Item

This project was done on a 12″x12″x1″ canvas. By painting the edges, it doesn’t need to be framed. If you wanted to, you could use a canvas panel so that it would be thin enough to place in a regular picture frame.

First off, select what you’ll use for the background. I chose the Slate paper for the top or sky, and the black for the ground bottom. I cut a strip off the bottom of the Slate paper and then tore a tiny bit along the edge. That way, the layers ease together nicely. Now, use an adhesive medium to coat the back side of your paper. Turn it over onto the canvas add a layer of your medium over the top to seal it.

slate background paper applied to canvas

Tear along the bottom edge to create less bulk when adding the next layer.

Next, I tore an edge on my Black paper to create the ground. Again, coat the back of the paper with your adhesive medium, turn it over onto the canvas and add another layer of the medium.

Black paper turn to give curves for the ground portion of the project.

Black paper turn to give curves for the ground portion of the project.

Next, you can either add some texture to background or you could just continue to the next step. I like to add a lot of different textures, so I used black StazOn as well as some white paint and a bit of Thistle ink. In the end I was sorry I had added too much of the white, so I grabbed some black paint and gave a squirt into my white paint to make a nice gray. I then brushed this over the sky portion of my background and restamped my texture in StazOn.

Texture added to the background

After my night sky became too light, I ended up creating gray with my paint and toned it back down.

Now it was time to really start having some fun. Between the paper pack and some stickers from its coordinating set, there was a lot to play with. Since these were the only products I wanted to use, I did a lot of cutting. One of the decorative sheets has a lot to choose from, and the parts that didn’t get cut up from that sheet will still be used to make some other things — cards, treat bag toppers, etc. You can get a lot of mileage from that one piece of paper! Here is what it looked like

Major pieces placed and doors and windows added.

Major pieces placed and doors and windows added.

Next I added details with a fine line marker, placed more stickers, and then used a black Pitt Pen to smudge around the edges of everything to give it more definition. A bit more black was smudged into the sky to add a little more darkness. NOTE: You MUST have sealed everything with your medium over the top, even the stickers. The Pitt Pen will smear for a second as soon as you put it on, but it will not smudge if it is on unsealed paper. You have to act quickly, and you may need to dampen your finger, as well.

The last thing I did was use a white gel pen to add some final definition to a few areas. You’ll notice that I didn’t try to make perfectly straight lines.  That’s it. Complete! Here are some close ups.

White Gel Pen used to add some details

White Gel Pen used to add some details.

Black Pitt Pen smudged around edges

Black Pitt Pen smudged around edges.

 

Night sky with more black smudged in over the Slate background

Night sky with more black smudged in over the Slate background.

Here is the final piece.  I may go back in and use my fine tip black pen to outline the witch and broom over the moon. What do you think?

Halloween Mixed Media Decor Item

Halloween Mixed Media Decor Item

Here is the FINAL piece. I went back in and outlined the witch!

Halloween Mixed Media Decor Item

Halloween Mixed Media Decor Item

Easy access to the Scaredy Cat items are below.

As promised, if you missed Karen’s great idea for hybrid Halloween tags, you go back and check it out HERE. Otherwise, next on the Make It Monday blog hop Melissa Shanhun is scrapbooking Halloween and there’s not a costumed child in sight! 

I hope you all know how much it means to know you’ve stopped by, looked and read. I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a comment!

Until our next Artful Adventure,

KS

 

 

Here are the featured products used in this project, with links to my online Close to My Heart store.